Minutes of Glory by Ngugi Wa Thiongo - Book Report/Review Example

Minutes of Glory Minutes of glory by Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a short story that demonstrates the consequence of urbanization and economic exploitation on the main characters. Their background is given is briefly told by the storyteller in a style of reporting. There is nearly any attractive presentation and the story moves fast to its final conflict and conclusion with a few lines of dialogue. The reason behind this is to make the reader come up with own suggestion of inspiration, as the story teller keeps distance from the excruciating implications of the story detailing the only the events. This story deals with the narrator’s portrayal of the main character in the short story. Wanjiru the main character is trapped in an urban situation and becomes a victim of low self-esteem. This story is has a moving tone and touching study of a young woman battling with an identity problem and seeking to be accepted in the Western civilization way of life of the new Africa elite. She is looked upon as the “wounded bird in a journey: a mandatory landing now and then but nevertheless quivering from place to place”. This short story establishes female self-realization instead of uninterrupted self-alienation, and that authenticates the persistence in attaining her preferred purpose (Halpen 182). Minutes of Glory is told in an omniscient perspective and follows her experiences through the bars in Illmorog. Wanjiru dropped out of school due to poverty and being a naive young girl from the rural area seeking for employment and fell prey to a man who took advantage of her. The turn of events leads her to new experience and ends up being a prostitute. The explanation of the narrative sets the tone for the story by bringing in the main character and telling the clash under which she chafes. Beatrice is her Christian name meaning the blessed one contradicts with her present situation. This is reflected in the way the Bantu are regarded as a misfortune and this underscores the tone of the narrative as is evident by her attempt to make her life better being futile. According to the traditional African culture, a person’s name is supposed to reflect on the personality of the individual and this does not happen in Beatrice’s case. Wanjiru is restless and this is brought out by her lack of ability to stay on a job for an extensive time and this brings out her economic instability and lack of success in the urban areas as well as the less developed towns. Her boss fires her for not attracting customers and she hopes that if she continues searching, she will eventually find her right place and be in control of her life. She considers her fellow prostitutes to be a threat and envies them for their success. She compares herself to other young women and does not find the differences between them as she is more attractive than some of them and wonders why they are more desired than her. She thinks her appearance makes the men not to desire her and despite her economic status buys the Ambi- a skin lightener to change her looks (Halpen 188). She feels demoralized by Nyaguthii because she thinks Nyaguthii has total control of her life while she does not. According to Wanjiru, Nyaguthii is extraordinary as her customers bring her gifts and fight over her and this makes Beatrice to feel miserable and dissatisfied with herself. She takes Nyaguthii to be her role model. Nyaguthii seems to be disinterested in everything and even fights the same men who bring her gifts. Wanjiru sees Nyaguthii as a free woman who is unavoidable. Wanjiru turns to Nyaguthii in her hour of need and she learns about Nyaguthii’s past and from her she learns how to deal with her low self-esteem when dealing with men. Wanjiru desires to reign in the bar without any competition from the other women and to achieve this she tries to mask her unappealing face with Ambi, a skin lightening cream, “ if she had not seen girls blacker than herself being transformed overnight from the unattractive sins into white stars by a feel of skin lightening emulsion? And men would stare at them ….” Her attempt to rid off her black skin is Wanjiru’s hope of a new self and despite this she still feels unhappy, alienated and humiliated. After she was fired by the owner of Starlight Bar, she begins to perceive herself differently and resolves to improve her life. Whenever she loses a job, she observes that she has aged as a result of her prostitution. However, Wanjiru’s heart has always wanted to have a decent work and have a man or men who cared for her. Her romantic soul wants true love and this makes her disgust this dreary imitation, thus heightening her lack of seductive graces. Wanjiru cannot substitute her sex relationships for true love and this is true because the new Africa wants to exploit women for their own satisfaction and less concerned about the genuine relationships demanded by the African culture. Towards the end she fantasizes about her home and realizes that she cannot go back that easily because she has no money to take home, “she longed to go back home to see them. But how could she back with empty hands?”(Halpen 156) The narrator in the story brings out the contributing factor to women mistreatment of African women is a result of segregation from the basic of African traditional society life and therefore nobody can protect them when they are removed from their rural homes. This displacement is as a result of westernization. Beatrice’s life is an anathema to traditional value of the society and ends up in a pursuit of love and life which is futile. Her fate portrays the larger unproductiveness affecting women attempting to survive in an environment unnatural to the African traditions (Halpen 126). The new Treetop Bar gives Wanjiru temporal relief as she is employed as a bed maker and this gives her a feeling of greatness because she is making beds for big men she previously knew by their names. To her disappointment, Nyaguthii and other girls get better jobs than her and they despise her for doing a basic tasks and being paid peanuts. Her self-assurance becomes dreaming and having fantasies of a good life and this is temporary. She considers the vegetable transporter to be attempting to be a big man and this gives her the hope of having a fellow victim. She longs to share her feelings with someone and is brushed off by the truck driver. This disappoints her as the same truck driver came every Saturday and shared his thoughts to her and paid for human services. This makes her to steal the truck driver’s money and goes to Nyaguthii in the hope of sharing her feelings to someone. Their conversation brings out their perception about each other as each thinks the other is in charge of her life. Even though Nyaguthii requires the attention of the men, she is not interested by men, “nothing interests her” and therefore Wanjiru considers her to be free. Wanjiru realizes that she can free herself from any situation. Sisterhood solidarity is brought out by the conversation between Wanjiru and Nyaguthii. Using her stolen money, she goes to Nairobi and she has a feeling of the power of her new self. She resolves to return to Treetop Bar to prove a point and assert herself and this is for a short time. “ ..Conversations stopped at her entry... she knows what she is doing by returning to the scene of her former shame and of her theft” (Halpen 208). This search of self- actualization of Wanjiru in a world which exploits women for sexual satisfaction is short-lived. Her strength is in her perseverance and regular motivation for answers through externally endeavoring to change her looks and this contribute to the paradoxically conquering person she ends up being. It is a wonder that she survives psychological ordeal due to her endurance and triumph and this is as a result of the Kikuyu women integrity. Wanjiru’s tribulations are a representation of the post-colonial Africa era. Wanjiru is destined to live in this world but she can still turn her destiny around. The narrator wants the reader to view Wanjiru’s triumph as a sign of hope to her culture and women in Africa. The setting story is in Kenya in Illmorog where distinctions in terms of class are privileged by everyone. This is because of the colonial era of the British which imposed their social system to the people. The protagonist comes from a poor background and has limited access to basic education and other essential resoureces and therefore sells her body to meet her needs and this lowers her self-esteem. She attributes this to her unappealing nature and her inability to fit in the urban life. She is an average looking woman and believes that her looks are her only setback. Her identity is formed by the fact that she comes from a poor background, lack of money and lack of opportunities and this makes her to have low-self esteem. This is affirmed by the fact that the men who come to the bar seem to avoid her and go for her as the last option. The same men who sleep with her ignore her on the next day and go for the other women in the bar who have many admirers (Halpen 198). She thinks the solution to this is by having enough money to buy Ambi, a skin lightening cream or new pair of stockings that are not torn and new clothes but she does not have the money. Wanjiru complains of her hardships she is undergoing and is not satisfied with her present condition as nobody seems to notice her. Her life seems to be full of disappointment and resolves to change this by stealing the truck driver’s money and going to Nairobi to buy herself new things and this makes her for once happy (Halpen 189). She realizes that she would never again be a waiter and she therefore buys herself jewellery and everything that she lacked before. She even buys drinks for herself and other people as well and felt good about it. However, this happiness is short lived as the man from whom she stole the money from finds her with the police. Her few moments of glory are therefore not worth the trouble that she is going to face. This story demonstrates the effect of urbanization and economic exploitation on the protagonist of the novel. The story minutes of glory takes interest on the class system which are planned to effect and uphold the upper classes. The problem of class distinction is portrayed by what happens to the truck driver who becomes Wanjiru’s lover. The idea of not naming the truck driver shows that he is not an important person and is only a person who worked hard enough to own a lorry which he is very proud of and is cautious of it being stolen. His dresses decently and is not recognized as one of the big men who frequent Treetop bar even though he is always trying to be recognized. The patrons of Treetop bar openly reject him and avoid his company and this makes Beatrice to relate herself to this man as she is experiencing the same thing (Halpen 176). The setting of this narrative is based in Kenya which was colonized by Britain. Kenya gained its freedom in the year 1963 and during the period of colonialisation, the administration of British encouraged the settling of Europeans in Kenya and sponsored education in Kenya and spread Christianity. This resulted in the introduction of Western ideologies in Kenya. After Kenya gained independence, the people had incorporated the Western ideas with the African traditions and they gradually dropped the African traditions to embrace the Westernized way of life which they deemed to be greater. In the narrative, the narrator reveals that people in the society accept and recognize those people who have the characteristics of the Western people and alienate those who still embrace the African traditions. Some of the people like Beatrice have low-self esteem as they seem to be still following the African traditions lack self-confidence and are not certain of their identities and suffer an identity crisis (Halpen 167). Their pursuit for acceptance in society becomes a key factor to attaining self-recognition and self-confidence. Beatrice wants to gain appreciation from her patrons; wants gifts, smiles and love just as they do to the other girls. She however realizes that she that she does not look like the Western people and is not recognized by other people as she is not white. Her fellow barmaids wear westernized things and are admired by all men and look down upon her. Due to this rejection she ends up stealing from a truck driver to buy herself western stuff and this helps her to be recognized by the other westernized people. This recognition brings about her minutes of glory which are described in the latter part of the narrative as the big men have the notion that having a girl who resembles the western people provides a sense of pride. Works Cited Daley, James. The World’s greatest Short Stories. New York: Dover Thrift.2009.print. Gioia, Dana. The Art of the Short Story. New York: Longman.2005.print. Halpen, Daniel. The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories. Westminster: Penguin (Non-Classics).2000.print. Halpern, Daniel. The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories. New York: Penguin Books. 1987. Print. Read More